A large and growing population of people enjoys entertainment or digital media through consumption of digital content items, such as music, movies, television shows, books, games and other types of digital content. As more content is made available in digital form, the economic landscape for media creation, production, and distribution is evolving. Electronic distribution of information has gained in importance with the proliferation of personal computers, mobile devices and mobile phones, and electronic distribution has undergone a tremendous upsurge in popularity as the Internet has become widely available. With the widespread use of rapid Internet connections, the quick and inexpensive distribution of large units of information has become possible using electronic technologies.
Increases in network speeds combined with the benefits associated with viewing content from one's own home have resulted in the growing popularity of consuming content over a network. For example, a customer may watch a movie at home, without having to drive to a video rental kiosk. In addition, the customer may avoid being inconvenienced by having to watch the movie at a pre-scheduled time (e.g., during a live television broadcast or according to play times at a movie theater). The ability to watch content over a computer network at a desired time provides flexibility to the customer's schedule. Furthermore, the customer may select from a wide variety of content based on individual preference and/or mood. For example, the customer may select from movies, television series, instructional videos, documentaries, video logs to name just a few. In addition, the ability to watch content on a wide variety of devices (e.g., desktop computers, laptop computers, televisions, cell phones, gaming systems, tablet computers) may provide the additional convenience of watching the content in a variety of places (e.g., a coffee shop, bookstore, or mall).